Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

You ain't right wheathauler! It was only after I'd been out to Kansas that I realized how fitting it was that the song, "Dust in the Wind" was by the group Kansas.

 

Putting in my bid for worse day of the week:

About 6:30am this morning I get finished dumping my beans, my boss man runs up to me and says my right rear trailer lights are out. We go back and there and mess with them for a few minutes. I start wiggling wire bundles, and they flicker just a little. Decide to head for NCH in Newton about 20 miles away to get them repaired. My boss gets his load dumped, and he follows me nice and close. About 100 yards from the off ramp cop lights come on, its the DOT! They get me pulled over, I jump out of the truck holding the trailer light I had just removed, and my boss stops too, to try and help explain lol. DOT starts inspecting my truck, checking my log book, on and on. After an out of service threat, and an escort the remaining fifty yards to the repair shop. The DOT guys printer brakes on him. DANG IT! The repair guy is already done fixing the harness, and I even have them do a new DOT inspection on the truck since it expires pretty soon, but the DOT guy is still fighting with his printer. 2 and 1/2 hours later he gets it fixed, and lets me roll. On the up side, both the DOT guys were very nice about everything, both way decent guys.

So off too work I go. On my 2nd load of the day I get to Cargill and jump in the bean line. Wait my turn in line, and begin to dump. What comes out of the trailer is RED! They had loaded me with freakin Milo. I get nearly 6000lbs dumped into the bean pit before I get the flow stopped. OH NO!!!!!!! Cargil guy writes an incident report, and I have to take them back from where they came. I get there, and the elevator guy is being a total jerk about it.

He actually starts telling me I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HAULING MILO TODAY, NOT BEANS, THIS JERK ACTUALLY ADMITS HE KNEW (HE FREAKING KNEW HE GAVE ME MILO) even though I asked for beans. I start giving the "You aint my boss, you aint #### to me" speech. Paperwork was marked beans, the location for beans was correct. This guy had me steaming at the ears. Worst of all, he refused to unload the milo, he insisted I was to haul milo today. I told him; there was nothing I could do if he wouldnt reload me with beans, but I COULD definitely get rid of that milo pretty quick. Asked him how he felt about unloading them off their scale with a shovel LOL! He finally started to get the picture, that I wasnt taking that load of milo one foot further.

About this time the guy that normally runs the scale house shows up. He's heard all about what happened, and he starts yelling at the guy. Tells him there were two loads of beans left, and that "I" WAS INDEED supposed to haul them. All of a sudden dude is back peddling, changing his story, and trying to act all innocent when ten minutes before he thought he was the head guy in charge.

I get dumped, and reloaded, and get out of there. My phone starts ringing, its the elevator manager from the place I delivered. The "normal" scale guy had told me to expect a phone call from him, as he'd want to hear all about what went on.

I didnt answer the call, I am no rat, and I sure dont want to put another mans job in jeopardy over that. Maybe I will call him back on Monday, or maybe ill just let my boss handle it. I just dont want to be the guy that gets another guy fired. What that guy did was wrong, and most assuredly on purpose, he definitely deserves to get his ### kicked, I just cant decide if I want to be responsible for that kicking...

 

We Kansans would all fall over if the wind ever stopped.

 

Well Kansas,your bad day trumped my bad day,i'll give you my vote. Sounds like the ''other'' scale guy was acting like a real jerk,but Kudos to you for not trying to get the guy fired

 

I was watching the Radar too,and i thought for sure we were going to get some ''bad'' storms out of that line,but it just blew apart about 50 miles to the west of us

 

Wow man! Problems on an '08 trailer? What did they figure out on that one?! Glad to hear they did some work on the Wilson I picked up, I noticed the new lights. When I hooked up to it, I moved the pigtail around some and saw that the lights didn't flicker like they did on the last wagon I just dropped off. Good thing I didn't bother spending money on a new pigtail just yet, it was the old trailer just like I thought. DOT always seems to be where they're not needed, but it's good they were decent to you.

The Wilson pulls really well behind the truck! Seems like the Commander pulls better than the Pacesetter I just dropped off, more stable on the road, and alot smoother. It might be costing me a mpg deadheading, but it could be the truck needing service again already. I just hope it's not too much heavier than the 96"W I just dropped off (being 102"W). Great to be able to see the front corners of the trailer in the mirrors, and I can actually tell when my work lights are on now! The trailer body sticks out about 2 inches past my fairings, and it's a good fit.

I stopped off for an alignment in North Little Rock, AR on my way back - my truck has the shakes sometimes - and had some work done at the Intl dealer. 5MTF and his wife stopped by and we chatted for awhile - it's their home turf now, and they were headed through under load. Great to meet up with them after talking on the phone all the time! After waiting 9 hours for the truck repairs (and $722! ) I found out the problem isn't in the alignment. It actually drives the same, shaking and pulling right when empty, and there's a new mystery burn on the sidewall of my "new" used steer tire! I have the printouts from the alignment, and they adjusted the heck out of it, along with replacing the rear leveling valve that would settle when the truck was shut down.

I'm going to call on Monday and have a chat with them about the burn on my steer tire, there was a tech playing with a torch in front of my truck when I walked through to check on it one of the times, and it's obviously a torch mark. $400 of the bill was to install a $140 leveling valve and bracket - and I think that's high as a kite! They were professional, and have a great shop - but I'm on the fence about whether I'll try them again - we'll see how the chat comes out on Monday. The reason I went there was just a blind choice, and I had a good impression when I talked to them. I'll have to check with friends here now that I'm home - because I have to get that issue straight.

Nothing like getting a mystery load, and finding out when you go to dump. If your paperwork was marked beans - it's definitely on them - and that guys gonna get his share of trouble. WTG on not getting involved, they don't need driver input on that one, and probably just looking for someone to blame the discipline on. It's pretty obvious what the heck happened, I'll bet it's the last time he tries that stunt - he needs to admit he screwed up and move on.

I've had a place try to load me with the wrong product and caught it before, and even had confusion on the order end. So far it hasn't happened to me yet, but I only reload once a day at the most - sometimes I'm under the same load for 3 days over a weekend or on a long run. You local haulers see more pit work in a week than I do in a month! Hard to believe that place doesn't check the load before they let you dump.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend out there - I'm just glad to be home. After being gone nearly a month, it's a nice change. The truck won't be going under load for at least a week, and maybe I can get a few things done while I'm home (like my IFTA filing). Best to all of you, and thanks for the help and advice!

 

So whats causing the shakes then HwyPilot, the drives? My alignment guy told me that our front ends pretty much suck. He says there's only so much he can control, I tend to believe this guy. Part of the reason why (I guess) Truck Parts here in town has been swapping customer Volvos to non-airbag front ends on multiple trucks by now.

Oh, on the 08'. Its got damage on the rear end from where the tire slapped it. My guess, when that happened it probably took out some of the original wiring with it. At some point (if i buy this trailer) I am ripping ALL of it out of that corner, and get a brand new harness back to the point where it hasnt been touched. I actually found a "live" red wire thats not hooked up to anything back there LOL. For what ever reason somebody T'd into the other red wire, and abandoned that one, who knows...l There are splices all over the place, its obvious its been an going problem well before I ever took over this trailer. That baby has already had all new brakes and drums put on it, she gets around lol.

Glad to see ya FINALLY made it home.